M’Vila does too much up the field | New Arsenal home kit shocker | Jack Wilshere omitted from reserves

Welcome to Thursday, even though technically, it’s a Friday for people of Britain because it’s a public holiday tomorrow. That means you’re entitled to start winding down today. May I recommend you join in the comments section here? It’s a superb way to get paid to talk about Arsenal.

Football. Yes, we have stuff to talk about today, finally!

Jack Wilshere didn’t return to the reserves line up yesterday as he was expected to. Not fit enough this week, but possibly fit enough to take part next week. Which, apparently could mean in 3 weeks he lines up for our first team. I wonder how much of this return to fitness with Jack is based around ensuring he doesn’t go to the Euros? A talent like Jack will always encourage risks from England managers. He’s like Beckham in 2002. Everyone will want him there regardless of what the long term effects of a recurrence of that injury could mean.

If Wenger brings him back in 3 weeks. That will give him games against Norwich and WBA. If they take him to Ukraine off the back of two games, you’d really have to question the state of the English game or take it as a massive compliment that we have one of best talents in English football after only one full season. Either way, it will be great to see him back playing again. For a teenager, it must have been a horrible year. Especially with a child. There’s no dodging your share of the duties when you’re house bound. Imagine all that quality time he’d have to be spending with his girlfriend? Poor bast*rd…

Theo Walcott has come out with some fighting talk around the Spurs resurgence.

“We can deal with pressure when we have to. The manager always takes it on his back but, as players, we can also cope with that now because we have had a tough period.”

I hope you can deal with the pressure Theo… us Gooners have bets that we want to win and bragging rights we’d dearly love to assume over the summer. The good news in the Champions League last night is that Chelsea beat Benfica. That puts them through to the semi finals of the competition and a two legged game against the best team in Europe. Old legs versus the fittest, fastest team on the planet. It’s a match made in exhaustion heaven. I think Chelsea could surprise everyone and nick a result. They have the experience to… and they have match winners in their squad. Abramovich has wanted the Champions League for years. You’d imagine all the foucus of the Chelsea camp will be on winning those two games. Hopefully they’ll get side tracked elsewhere!

How about the new kit?

Terrible

I’d love to have been in the brain storm for this one. I’d imagine they had the creative director in there after a 4 day drinking binge, the cleaning lady, the intern and a monkey with a box of black crayons. What a shocking looking shirt. Black? Red and black? Like United? What the hell are they thinking? Honestly. Did no one sit in the presentation of that kit and say…

‘Guys, you know that red, white and black is traditionally the colours of Manchester United?’

I tend to get on with most of the kits, but this one really is a horrible mess. It doesn’t even feel like Arsenal. They haven’t even done a good job shoe horning black into the shirt. To be honest, I’d be happy to see the back of Nike. They haven’t done anything exciting with our kits for years. When they burst onto the scene in 96(?) their first kits were like a vision from the future. Those hopped socks, the lightning flashes… they were excellent. Now all the other kit brands have caught up and Nike seem to put about 15minutes of effort into our shirts. Bad form Nike… bad form.

I read a really interesting interview from Marcel Desailly on Goal.com about Yann M’Vila.

‘He is a defensive midfielder. If you defend very well anything extra you do is fine. First of all, stick on one thing – defending very well and passing very quickly to the offensive players.

‘Once he will have understood that you will see he is the best midfielder – better even than Patrick Vieira.’

Big words from a player who has played at the highest level and won trophies.

‘Arsenal is probably a stable club where he can have a bit of time or [Manchester] United where he has time to assimilate the changing of clubs and start slowly to perform,’ added Desailly.

‘He needs to come to the Barclays Premier League. We want him in this competition because it is the best, first of all, and he can really develop his skills. It is for players who like to play with tempo.

‘You can see by the way he gets the ball, control and passes straight away. Long ball, short ball. He has that sort of rhythm that the Barclays Premier League is demanding.’

He really does sound like the sort of player our midfield needs right now. People ask what that means for Coquelin and Frimpong. Well, does it matter? We need now players. If you’re not a now player, then you have to up your game and make yourself a now player. That’s how the world works right? If a company doesn’t have a ready made managing director, they don’t just fish one out of the back office who isn’t ready, they bring someone in who can deal with it now and hope the people below learn enough to develop. The same should be true of football. We don’t have a ready made defensive midfielder who can compete with Song or allow him to move further up the pitch. Young players should have to fight for a place in the team, not be gifted it because they’re young and have a bit of potential. If Song demonstrates anything, it’s that if you flog away at potential for 5 years, you might get somewhere, your trophy cabinet won’t though.

The really interesting part was this comment…

‘He is doing too much on the field, he is defending and trying also to create and make the difference up the field. He has to reduce his commitment up the field.’

Someone should have been telling Alex Song this over the season. I guess that’s the issue he has. Arsene tells him he’s like Cesc, so obviously, he’s not going to sit in front of the back four and defend all game. A defensive midfielder does not win the plaudits, does not earn the mega bucks and doesn’t get the credit for winning a game.

Interesting stuff all the same. Let’s hope we sign him. He’d be a very good piece of business.

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That’s your lot for Thursday… do we move joke Friday to Thursday? I think so… let them roll…

219 Responses to “M’Vila does too much up the field | New Arsenal home kit shocker | Jack Wilshere omitted from reserves”

auntie died a few months ago, just got some inheritence, put £2000 on Arsenal beating city at 15/8. My God, I think I have ruined myself, if my family find out I am DEAD!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHHAHHH what a buzz though!!!!

“Personally I never question the attitude of this team, which I may have done in some previous years,” Wenger told this month’s Official Arsenal Magazine.
Must have blinked when wenger QUESTIONED the attitude of the team in the past. The way the guy spoke of players over past 6 years one would have thought denilson would give winston churchill a run for his money when it came to resolve!!! I dont get mr wenger

I’m really not sure where this flood (trickle) of Barca won’t find Chelsea easy to beat over two legs has come from.Yes they will.They will find it extraordinarily easy because Benfica with ten men frightened the life out of them. It’s a perfect tie if you’re playing Chelsea between the two legs ( who is by the way,oh us!)
This Chelsea side may well be stronger mentally than us,so sadly might Tottenham but they certainly haven’t got the legs we have and given their fixture congestion things could get very Messi for them.Geddit?

Howdy Grovers, it’s been a while since i last posted a comment on here which is largely down to the disgraceful manner in which Lord Wenger as Untold would have us believe and the circus of a board have continued to handle arsenal affairs, seriously i’m just fed up with it all, decided to take a sabbatical as i am still very young in my late 20’s and i don’t quite have a strong heart. However, it’s been all positive news emanating from the press lately on transfer front and for once i really hope these has some substance, i for one i’m prepared to give wenger one last chance to redeeme himself and go out in a blaze of Glory, it’s Time to bring back the Arsenal of the old and the wenger of old, you know the one that sets out each season to win the EPL not the one that believes 4th place is a trophy! And yeah Walcott is stil Sh*t.

TundeApril 5, 2012 17:47:28
Howdy Grovers, it’s been a while since i last posted a comment on here which is largely down to the disgraceful manner in which Lord Wenger as Untold would have us believe and the circus of a board have continued to handle arsenal affairs, ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Funny that, that is usually the reason people DO post on here regularly!

Lol… Well let’s just say i am different kind of Fish, positive news does alot of wonders to my fragile heart, i get worked-up talking about messy things like the one we found ourself in and i’m Hypertensive you get the idea… I’lld rather turn a blind Eye to the Mess! 😀 Wenger i hope you’re reading i want a front 3 of Poldi-VantheMan-Eden H, you like that too don’t ya!?

Tirande, We don’t need hazard, we need Podolski, Mvilla and Vertohgen, then we are COMPLEEEEEEEETE!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have enough creative talent i think, especiay with ilshere, ryo and podolski as effective “new” signings.

With Mvilla, we can have Arteta, song and Mvila all rotating as the dm core. Then we could have the spare man pushed forward or benched. We have Wishere Ramsey Rosocky and dont forget how god the ox was against Milan in the middle, Expect to see A LOT ore of him there, with RyO/gerv, podi/walcot on the wings interchanging.. Imagine for really tough games we could have. Mvilla Arteta
SOng

so, who do we write to to demand a better kit? maybe just a simple red torso with white sleeves and white collar (like the 70s kit) with a return to the yellow and blue away kit.
from this and the milan kit looks like nike seems to think that they have to put a black band on the end of every teams jersey sleeve.
maybe arsenal should open a competition where the fans design the next season’s kit.

Barca didn’t really need Fab4 n Sanchez, they had Xavi and alcantara was coming up, they had pedro and cuenca was breaking through, guess what? They bought them anyway! We will be stupid to let him go to d sp*ds, he is better than Bale already and i still don’t fink we have sm1 like him in our squad, he is the closest thing to Pires out there.

Cnt forget how good the ox was against meelan…..

Dont forget how good hazard has being in pretty much all games for 2years!

We need mvila, vert, poldi… Please Why can’t we have the four of them?

We have rosicky,ramsey,arteta…

Are arteta and rosicky long term options? Ramsey..yeah look how consistent and good he is!

Mark my words Hazard is a potential Balon D’or i’lld like to see him win that at Arsenal!

I’ve gotta say the jersey does look really ugly but i won’t be thinking look at this horrible jersey if hopefully captain Vantastic ends up holding aloft the EPL title wearing it… Sorry that’s my take on it don’t see what the fuss is all about.

Because wenger apparently knows something we don’t and decided he is worth that much… Don’t ask me what it is though because i have absolutely no idea what he sees in that perma-crock! I just hope he ends up repaying his unflinching faith as unlikely as that might sound.

Arsenal tom i agree, cant see vertonghen happening unless we can offload djourou, not likely. But i would love his versatility.
goonerfied said it best, our needs are def mid, cam, back up striker and versatile defender. We all know who we want. But lets be realistic. Podolski great choice because he can get time on wing while robin starts 75 – 80 percent at striker. Back up strikers are useless because they cant stay match ready with no
playing time. So no good striker only wouldccome to a team with rvp that plays 4-2-3-1. So podolski fits well. Mvila sounds great, but we cant mess around with the price. A fair to good offer, plus the wenger charm with a personal visit ( admit it all you haters, he has. alotta charm. especially with french players )
so those could be the two great additions to keep rvp happy. And all of us also. I personally trust aw to find aless expensive cam from germ or france to do the job ahead of rosicky, but not gona be a big name or price either butwe need someone new there. If done very early to prevent bidding wars and avoid all the rvp is leaving hype the media will bring every day if we waste time.
remember, even before the season ends they will be pushing the rvp to city, real, barca stories.

tunde, If we signed Vert, Podo and Mvilla, that would be 40 + million spent, add eddy Nazar to that list and you are creeping towards 80 million. At Arsenal that will/could not ever happen. So Give me mvilla , vertohngen and podolski Over Hazard. I would love to see hazard in our team , but from what I have heard he is an Uber Prima Donna, do we really want/need another dickhead in our team? I prefer our options that we have for the wing , like Podolski, Gervinho , walcott, oxlade and Ryo. I believe Hazard could literally end up living up to his name, ie when you see the Hazard lights flashing, take a wide birth (even wider than the one Gambon’s mum had to endure) and stay well clear!

“Tirande, We don’t need hazard, we need Podolski, Mvilla and Vertohgen, then we are COMPLEEEEEEEETE!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have enough creative talent i think, especiay with ilshere, ryo and podolski as effective “new” signings.”

WTF?!!!!

Name me one quality passer in the side apart from wilshere? We don’t even have an attacking mid.

Zeus, sicknote, Song, Arteta, , plus with Mvilla and Wilshere, They can all pass. We certainly dont neeed Hazard or any other attacking winger, If Hazrd was actually a CM, and not a twat, I could start to understand our Undying need for him. But really Eddy Nazar is the last thing this Arsenal team should spend that kind of money on. As I said Vert, mvilla and Podolski, With the addition of Ryo and Wilshere and have quality in every position and back us too, we will be immense. Please dont forget how good Rosicky is at passing when he is on form, AND we can use the ox in the middle too ala Milan.. We dont need Eddy Nazaar, would have preferred Goetze ( to him ,I can see a point) + Hazard has got dick head, dressing room disrupter written all over him!!

Kagawa would be great. I’d be ecstatic if we sign him. I agree with Zeus that he has Kaka like qualities such as movement,touch,accuracy in dangerous areas. If I had to choose between him and Hazard I would go for Kagawa because he is I feel exactly what we need- doesn’t take too many touches,he is clever in the head,confident and due to his touch and accuracy can can create or score in tight situations. He has this killer instinct about him and Robin would do great with a proper no.10 like him just behind him.

Let’s be honest here, the foreigners hold up the EPL. If the league was mostly filled with English talent most people would not be watching.

Italy dies a good job of retaining most of their players as does Germany, France and Spain.

England retains many of their own as well, the problem is England trods behind all other top footballing countries like the ones already mentioned and the traditional south Americans.

I don’t know why, but top quality English talent is few and far between. Wilshere is the first player that England has produced in the mould of Scholes since…..well Scholes, and there seems no other than I know of in the Wilshere mould in the production line.

Where is the new Owen, it sure isn’t Walcott. For all the talk of bridging that technical gap, with a new generation of players looks another false dawn.

I would love to see Jack and the Ox kick on with the granny shagger, the kid at everyone whose name I constantly forget, and jack jebb that Pedro lives to bring up in jest.

But it’s still not enough. The argument that Germany benefits from immigrants so it’s easier to produce talent also doesn’t ring true, loads of immigrants go England. Though some like frimpong choose to rep them.

Good article. I agree especially with the supposed Jersey for next year, very very poor from Nike, who have let down the last few years! On the M’Vila point, would like to see a good defensive minded midfielder in the team, will give Song a bit of competition for his place, even though he’s been superb for us this season. I want to see the dead weight like Squillaci and Park out of the club, waste of wages, and to see Wenger bring in new centre back and centre midfield, maybe even left winger too.. My ideas are Sakho from PSG, Honda from CSKA Moscow, and finally Marko Marin from Bremen or Eden Hazard of Lille. That should create champions.

Germany revamped their whole grass roots system in 2000 or so. The current batch reap the benefits.

And they all play great football and are technically perfect without having forsaken the German steel.. It’s also telling that a lot of them are small technical players (case in point: Goetze, Ozil Marin Kroos etc. )

England should have done that ages ago, but the FA are a bunch of ancient backward morons. Stuart Pearce had the U21’s play route one.

i dont get on here all that often but we gotta try do something to avoid an embarrasment on the design of our kit..im a gooner from australia and i suppose we could get a petition going against the black..fuck, even get a vote on the design..i hate nike for their commercialisation of Arsenal and football in general, they make no attempts to research our history or our colours as proves with this supposed new kit (im a sceptic whether it could be fabricated?) But just incase we should get involved in a virtual world at least and let our voices be heard by the board…

i think coq will be more of cm anyway, i doubt we will see the best of him as well. frimpong like diaby we cant just wait for. i mean 2 seasons in a row is unfortunate but the club is bigger then a squad player. i do however think the only possible way of us getting a decent CB is if he has variety in his game, i mean who wants to play 10 games a season behind per, verm and kos apart from djourou. who knows with song though, wenger used to talk him up as a cb as well. those long chips for vp would be a lot easier with the space he would have as CB. one thing is for sure the other players we buy define where song plays/ if his role changes.

Wenger is not moving song anywhere he is not at as good as kos, verm and merty at CB and Definitely the best Dm we have at the Moment ( and that’s saying a lot about how low we’ve sunk because he is not that good!) i see us buying another Dm to partner Ala the Pat4, Edu/Gilberto days with wilshere/chambo ultimately ending up as our AMF… Here is hoping we can get shot of Almunia, Flappy, Squilly, vela (shame cos i really like him,along with falcao, are the best and most consistent strikers i’ve ever worked with in FM, i stil preffer playing my 07 just because the two of them), Prince Bendy, Mannone, Benayoun and Maybe Chamack, that’s 8 players off the wage bill hopefully we’lld be able to bring in 4 top quality signings then we can safely say we are back in business.